Unplanned spatial development with illegal and unauthorized buildings emerged in big metropolitan cities in Turkey especially after 1980s led to increase the vulnerability of our living areas to disasters. Thus, land use development and construction processes compliant with building codes and regulations are very important and basic step to improve preparedness level for any disaster. It is well known that there is a lack of technical and professional capacity in municipalities to monitor building permit and construction processes and also transparency in municipality services is very limited. The project under Component C of ISMEP (Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project) implemented by Istanbul Governorship Istanbul Project Coordination Unit ensured more effective processes for development and building permit activities including construction and building inspection in Bağcilar Municipality. As a result, the monitoring capacity for planning and construction process increased a more transparency in controlling land use development and managing related municipality services provided at the municipality level. This will clearly contribute to take necessary actions in decision making and implementation phases on disaster risk reduction activities.

The article argues that Turkey has entered a new wave of environmental consciousness and collective action that embraces a new environmental paradigm in which human-environment relations are also questioned. Consequently, today’s environmental awareness and activism in Turkey cannot be read or explained solely within the limits of the mainstream environmentalist framework or capitalist/neoliberal critique framework; there is a need for a more comprehensive and inclusive framework, and this is offered by the Environmental Justice Paradigm. This article presents the context and boundaries of environmental justice concept and paradigm, and also provides a new window to read and explain recent environment-related social distress in Turkey with a different scope.

The term livability is defined as a principle which contributes directly to the vital satisfaction of individuals, and is related to the specifications of spaces. It defines a quality level that enhances the spatial usage preferences of individuals. However, ‘quality level’ as used here is not a technical statement measured only by its capital provision. The term “spatial quality” must be considered within the scope of ‘Spatial Affordances’ as described by the ‘Theory of Affordances’ developed by J. Gibson in the field of human-space relationships. Spatial quality is directly related to the extent to which space meets human needs, and in this sense, how space orients human behavior, given that space is passive and humans its determinants. More importantly, a space that has no users can only carry the significance of object. Thus, the relation between human and space contains a semantic magnitude that follows from its pragmatic inception. However, many public spaces today are especially/intentionally designed to be observed rather than used: orderly, clean, empty, ‘no human, no problem’ spaces. The same attitude can also be observed in the spatial organization of private spaces. In this context, it may be said that space is apprehended as a concept of quality rather than in terms of its affordance specifications. In recognition of this, the terms ‘spatial quality’ and ‘livability’ are described in this study in terms of their relation with the processes and concepts of human-space relations. The study is based on the quality criteria for public spaces, insofar as these spaces form the basis for humans’ search for space according to shared needs and activities.

An airport is a combination of a large and diverse facilities, systems, users, workers, rules and regulations (IATA, 2004). Therefore, airport master plans have a multi-disciplinary and complex structure that calls for political and social decisions requiring planning, engineering and technical designs, including operation and management techniques. Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) Airport Workgroup have developed a new model for airport master planning which considers the multi-disciplinary and complex structure of airport master plans, and integrates the traditional airport master planning process as defined by International Air Transport Association (IATA) with a strategic planning approach. This new model was used in Trabzon Airport Revision Master Planning, and this paper sets out the developed planning model, its process and its results as seen in this case.

Ecological design principles constitute an incontrovertible approach in response to global environmental problems. With buildings responsible for more than 40% of worldwide energy consumption and one third of greenhouse gas emissions, it follows that energy efficiency efforts in building design are of the utmost importance. In the modern world, ecological planning and design have become essential for environmental, economic and social sustainability of urban life. In the design of ecological living environments, criteria such as minimization of environmental impact of settlements, efficiency of water use, development of better public transport systems, use of renewable energy resources, and decreased waste generation and increased recycling are all gaining in importance. In this context, and especially in large-scale residential projects, the aim is to create an ecologically, economically and socially “sustainable” living environment, “compatible with human needs”. Sinpaş Altınoran, the largest private sector-funded housing project in Turkey, was selected for this study because of its location in the district of Oran, a prestigious area which overlooks the city. This paper evaluates Ankara Sinpaş Altınoran Housing Project in light of ecological design criteria.